I love everything about this photo as it is just us. D with sandals on, yet his raincoat. Me with my hair screwed up, jeans, jumper and my phone in my back pocket. No pretty background just real life. Plus I often carry him like this as it is way easier!!
I feel like my patience have needed patience this week to not get cross with the multiple melt downs that have happened, even though each one luckily only last seconds. I have repeatedly told myself ‘Don’t get cross, he hasn’t done anything wrong, he’s just a toddler.’ Then I feel bad for getting frustrated with him when he hasn’t really done anything wrong. What a silly cycle.
I began thinking about all of this last night. These are some of the things he has had a melt down/tantrum about this week and I have found frustrating:
When I think about it I have taught and encouraged him to do all of these things. I have encouraged him to climb, I have shown him how to use a basket in a shop, I have played with him in water everywhere, I have chased him and encouraged him to play with unusual materials. Then next thing he knows I have said he can’t do these things so maybe it is me who is unreasonable and his strop is justified?!
I think this is a stage we will muddle through together. Probably getting frustrated with each other and both thinking the other is unreasonable at times. However, one thing I am trying really hard to do, is not get embarrassed by his strops and just remember he is a toddler who is exploring and although he communicates really well, he still can’t reason or explain.
In his little life, hundreds of pictures have been taken of D. A very tiny proportion of them include me which now makes me a little sad. At the beginning, I wasn’t keen on having photos taken of me as I was bigger than I was used to being. I questioned this descision recently when looking at this photo. Yes I’m bigger than I’d like to be but we’re all happy and cripes I gave birth only 7 months before. Lesson learnt!
One morning this week we had so much screaming I’m surprised the police weren’t called.
Was he upset? No.
Was he hurt? No.
Was he hungry? No.
Did he think it was funny? Oh yes!
Did I think it was funny? Officially, no. Unofficially, yes!
This reminded me of the first time I found him stood up in his cot when he was supposed to be asleep. Although I was frustrated as he was supposed to be asleep, I was also pretty impressed. Plus he was soooooo pleased with himself!
Today I left him with a friend of mine for a couple of hours. My friend told me that as soon as I left, he pointed to all the things he’s not supposed to touch. E.g the radiator “hot” and walked over to the record player looking at her the whole time. I’m currently undecided as to whether this is a parenting win or loss!!
(He also says ‘’hot’’ to anything he’s not supposed to touch. We think this started from hot drinks!)
This week he has put a shoe down the toilet, a plastic bottle down the toilet and climbed the stairs alone, not for the first time. At what point does a responsible parent get a stair gate? Probably at least 2 climbs ago. My theory is we never leave him alone, so we need one but not desperately, well now he’s so fast! We need one! Probably should also do something with the safety clips I bought yesterday for the kitchen cupboards!
As a child I thought when I was a mum and a 30 year old, I’d be a proper grown up. I’m now a mum and 30 and I still iron my clothes with straighteners and even that only happens maybe twice a year. Maybe not so much of a grown up!
I have some toys that a friend of mine lent to me and as it’s 1st birthday week I thought it’s a good time to give them back. Before returning them, I decided to give them a clean. Oh wow! They were so bright and looked so clean, so I cleaned the rest of Dougie’s toy! All sparkling, I was amazed and then had a word with myself and decided maybe this is just something I should do more often!
This morning is the first time I’ve really thought about this. Like many mothers I try to keep my son clean, standard behaviour, but I’ve realised I often wipe snot or whatever off his face with my hand and then if I have nothing to wipe this on, I wipe it on my clothes!! Is this normal? Is it just a sign that he’s the most important thing? Let’s pretend it’s normal, at the end of every day I also always find my clothes covered in snot or food that he’s wiped off on me as I hold him. Again, the whole time I’m ensuring he’s clean!! There is something that doesn’t make sense here! ^ss+
We’re slowly realising how much he understands. Which is great but as my mum pointed out to me the other day, we will soon have to watch what we say around him. I have a feeling we may learn the hard way. At the moment we understand, hands up, wave, bye, hiya, knocking, clapping. Dougie has also realised he can quack like a duck and moo like a cow!! Quacking occurs any time we see or hear a bird, or even a dog!
Dougie and Me 